Naomi Osaka has pulled out of Roland Garros, citing the hamstring injury that she picked up late last month at the Western & Southern Open in New York.
My hamstring is still sore so I won’t have enough time to prepare for the clay — these two tournaments came too close to each other for me this time.
The 22-year-old Osaka injured her left hamstring in the second-set tiebreak of her “Cincinnati” semifinal against Elise Mertens and the health issue forced her to withdraw from the final against Victoria Azarenka. Then she entered the US Open not really confident in her form, but it turned out the Japanese was much better than she thought, as she went all the way to the champion’s trophy.
The fact that the US Open and Roland Garros are just two weeks apart in this year of corona is a challenge to players, but not everyone is struggling. Look at Victoria Azarenka, after winning the Western & Southern Open and playing the US Open final, she quickly arrived at the claycourt tournament in Rome and has so far defeated two Grand Slam champions in her first two matches (Venus Williams and Sofia Kenin).
